How Physicists Quantum Teleported Information Over 62 Miles
Photon detector NIST Teleportation isn’t real, at least not as it’s depicted in fiction. No one has ever made a material object -- be it Harry Potter or Captain Kirk -- physically disappear from one location and reappear elsewhere. But information … that’s a different story. This week, scientists set a new record for quantum teleportation distance, instantaneously sending a message from one particle of light to another particle at the end of an optical fiber more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) long. The quantum memo moves from one particle to the other without actually traveling through the space between them. (In this case, the optical fiber was just used to hold two particles far apart.) Developed by a researcher at a Japanese telecommunications company, the technology could boost efforts to protect information against...